


You Trace Constellations in the Sky

by DissonantDreams



Series: I Know Now What I Knew Then But I Didn't Know Then What I Know Now [1]
Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Pining, Recreational Drug Use, SOFT GAYS, Teenage Rebellion, We defyin' Maria, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25945414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DissonantDreams/pseuds/DissonantDreams
Summary: “Why would I want to hang out with him when I haven’t seen you in forever?” Dina raised her brows turning her lips down with a casual shrug of her shoulders. “Besides. Jesse’s my friend, but right now he's boring me going on about patrol training. You’re back, you’re interesting, entertain me.”OREllie returns from her birthday excursion with Joel unsure of how she feels after stumbling across graffiti in the museum. Luckily Dina is looking for a distraction one which Ellie is all too ready to provide.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Series: I Know Now What I Knew Then But I Didn't Know Then What I Know Now [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935721
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78





	You Trace Constellations in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there!  
> This is loosely based off Ellie"s memory from my other fic [Nail In My Head](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25036984/chapters/60633982)
> 
> Go read that if you feel inclined. Or not. I'm not the adult forced to fight my way across the country to deliver you to a group of revolutionaries, so they can use the fungal growth in your head to make a vaccine, and slowly lets you past the walls I've built around my heart after losing my daughter at the beginning of the pandemic ravaging our world, until you've become my surrogate child, killing everyone who would come after you and dooming humanity, to give you the chance of having a normal childhood.
> 
> As with anything I do, no beta, no test groups, many apologies.

Overhead the sky began to turn from gold to pink as the sun began to dip low behind the Tetons. The gates of Jackson cut up with patches of evening sun, rose up to greet the two as they approached on horseback. Covered in dirt, sweat, and dried clicker blood, Ellie wiped her nose over the back of her arm as Joel called up to the watch guard to let them in. The grooves of her chemical burn serving as a reminder of her new found freedom. No longer trapped by long sleeves and the fear that someone would turn violent towards her the second they glimpsed the ring of fucked up cysts. After what felt like forever, her arm finally healed and the scar tissue had settled from an angry pink to the pale tone of the rest of her arm. In the right light she barely noticed it anymore. She dismounted Shimmer, the beautiful brown mare Maria and Tommy had given her as her personal horse for her birthday. The mare whinnied, softly chuffing into Ellie’s hair as she moved in front of the horse, lightly rubbing a hand along her barrel as she untied her guitar from the saddle pack. Ellie mumbled some goodbyes into the horse’s shoulder before she passed over the reins to one of the stable hands who arrived to take the horses in and check them out after the long trip.

The two week trip took them out to the Wyoming Museum of Science and History. Joel had been a smug old bastard about the whole thing going into it. However, the last two nights had been dampened by the discovery of Firefly graffiti and Joel’s lack of willingness to just fucking talk to her about what happened in Salt Lake. She cared for him, after all they had been through together it was hard not to, but there was something in the way he looked at her whenever she brought up the hospital that made her question her trust. For that reason, they spent the three days afterwards awkwardly trying to be in the same space. Both reverting to the stilted conversation and cautious presence that plagued the initial part of the journey across the country almost a year ago.

“You gonna stand there forever, kiddo?” Joel nudged Ellie in her side, his familiar joking tone knocking loose the tendril of doubt that slowly had wormed it’s way around her mind.

“Age before beauty, old man.” Ellie checked his shoulder, gestured to the gate with her hand and bowed slightly earning a hearty bark of a laugh from him.

“Ouch.” Joel feigned hurt over the comment. He grinned wide and carefree, the laugh lines around his eyes had gotten deeper during the last year in Jackson. He smiled so much more now. “Never shoulda taught you that one.” He hefted his pack higher on his shoulder before making his way towards the gap in the gate. Ellie followed at a much slower pace, kicking out a few pebbles on the ground.

“Actually, I learned that one from the best.” Joel paused at the gate raising his eyebrow at her in question. Ellie adopted her best creepy voice. “Remember bats and ghouls, age before boo-ty!” Joel stared at her blankly. “Seriously Joel, nothing? The Cryptkeeper?” Ellie rolled her eyes and sighed. They passed through the gate, the bustling sounds of Jackson a welcome break from the two weeks of the quiet of the woods. Save for a wild boar and the pack of clickers that moved through on their way in, the trip had been uneventful in that manner.

“That one of your comic guys?” Joel asked. “Or them cards you been collectin’?”

“Joel, who raised you to be this lame? How do you not know the single greatest master of comedic horror to grace a TV screen?” Ellie made her point by gesturing to his entire person. “I shoulda left you with all the other dinosaurs at the museum.” Joel finally broke, chuckling to himself like he joke told the best joke in existence.

“You are too easy to mess with.” Ellie glared at him before walking past him towards the outskirts of the town, towards the housing section of Jackson where Joel’s house and her apartment were.

“Haha, you’re real funny, Joel.”

“I know I am, but it is nice to hear you say it every once in a while.” Joel caught up to her easily and put a warm hand on her shoulder. “I know Maria gave you those DVDs a while back, you wanna watch one tonight?” He sounded hopeful. Ellie wanted to watch something, preferably by herself. Since coming to Jackson, she had for the first time in her entire life, some semblance of privacy.

Two weeks alone with Joel wasn’t awful, she survived much longer with him no problem, but she needed to decompress. There hadn’t been any of the terrible things they faced on their way from Boston until they encountered infected about an hour ago. It had been a nice time, mostly spent learning how to properly hunt and track game, camping, guitar lessons, singing around a fire, trading jokes and scary stories. It was the nicest two weeks she could remember since Riley. After seeing dinosaurs and getting to sit in a fucking space module, the next best thing about her birthday had been Joel citing that she was old enough, and finally letting her shoot his revolver.

“As much as I would love that. We just spent the last two weeks in the woods together and I’m covered in more clicker blood than I’d like to be. My plan is to sit in my tub until I look as wrinkly as you.” Ellie flipped him off for good measure. Joel flipped her off right back with a gentle quirk of his lips.

“Ease on up there with the age thing, Kiddo.” Joel shook his head, as though he couldn’t believe what was happening. “Between you an’ Tommy I am never gonna hear how good I look again.”

“If you want someone to go tell you you look good go see Esther. Tommy and I are her to keep you humble.”

“That woman will not hesitate to remind me of my age.” Joel’s eyes glazed over in that dumb fond look he gets whenever Esther is mentioned. He’s so in love Ellie shoved at his shoulder.

“Gross.”

“You’re gonna need to be more specific on that one, kiddo.”

“You get that weird look when you’re thinking about Esther.”

“Ellie, one day you are gonna meet someone who makes you look weird just thinkin’ about them.” He looked fondly down at her as he opened the gate to their property. “And on that day I am gonna mercilessly give you shit for it.”

They made their way to the back of the house where for a few fragile moments neither of them moved. Ellie rubbed at the scar on her arm and furrowed her brow. Joel scratched at his beard and they both cleared their throats before Ellie stepped forward and hugged Joel with one arm, the dried patch of clicker blood on his chest flaking off with the movement, for a fraction of a second he froze before he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.

“Thanks, Joel. For taking me out for my birthday. It didn’t suck.” Ellie released him and he let her go like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do.

“You’re welcome, Kiddo.” Joel’s voice was tight and watery, much like his eyes were at the moment. He cleared his throat into his hand, glancing towards the back porch.

“I think I’m gonna head in, work on a new guitar for Gus. You come knock if ya need anythin’ okay? I’ll see ya tomorrow for lunch at Maria an’ Tommy’s.”

Ellie tossed her head towards her own apartment, the one Joel built for her out of the garage. “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Ellie opened the door, exhaling heavily when she shut it behind her. She reached into her back pocket and puller her knife out, flicking open the blade she drove it down into the top of the white side dresser she placed by the door.

Striding over to her desk she dumped her guitar on her couch on the way, removing her backpack and dropping it to the space between the couch and desk with a thud, rifling through it to pull out her journal and gun. She placed both of them on the desk and sat to remove her shoes. Joel had reprimanded her when he found out she hadn’t turned her gun over to check in, everyone in Jackson under eighteen wasn’t allowed to own their own side arm. He had eased up when she told him she didn’t want to give up the gun that made him trust her. His face twisted up into a sad grimace before he told her if Maria found out he knew nothing and she was on her own. Maria found out and made an exception because she had saved her from the hunter attack at the dam, telling Ellie that she was gonna give Joel shit for it anyway. She still has no clue why that man fears her so much. Maria’s not so bad.

The heat of the garage immediately starts to get to her, Ellie opens the window by her bed to let some air in before she headed over to the bathroom, drawing a bath from the gravity tanks she’d installed with Tommy. Grabbing a clean enough rag and her sliver of soap, Ellie peeled out of the clothes she’d been wearing for the last week, sighing in relief as she sunk down into the cool water. Humming out the tune she was working on for a song, she scrubbed the dirt and blood from her hair and skin. Watching as the water turned a pale gray, forming a ring around the tub. Resting the back of her head against the cool porcelain of the claw tub she sat until the pink of the sky turned purple and she could make out a few constellations through the window that was positioned on the wall by the tub.

Groaning, Ellie got out of the tub and dried herself off in the dark.

“Ugh, I have too much fucking hair.” She griped to herself, pulling her wet hair into a pony tail, taking a moment in to mirror to judge herself. “Could be worse I guess.”

Leaving the towel to dry in the bathroom, Ellie padded barefoot into the main room. A cool summer’s night breeze moving the curtains slightly, she pulled open her dresser drawer, grabbing the first pair of underwear, black boxers and the dirty white sports bra with the brown blood stain on the left strap from when she had accidentally sliced her shoulder open goofing around with Jesse on a questionably stable desk they found in the abandoned barn the party they snuck out to had been held in. It was just within the safe zone and Ellie found herself getting drunk for the first time in her life. They had been slow mo fighting each other while Dina and a few of their other friends kept laughing and telling them to get down before they got hurt. Of course the table broke and Ellie found the one bit of metal sticking out in the damn thing. Dina chastised her while pouring a generous amount of vodka on the gash before taping it shut. It hadn’t hurt all that much in the haze of alcohol in her system, yet under Dina’s touch her shoulder had felt like it was on fire.

Just as Ellie pulled her bra down, her door slammed open, starling her. She managed to cover herself as best she could, not facing the door.

“Shit, Joel! I said knock, you gotta get that old brain of yours checked out if you can’t fucking knock.” Ellie grabbed a faded pair of black jeans and started to pull them on. “Jesus, are you gonna shut the door and give me some privacy?!” Ellie glared back at Joel to find Dina staring red-faced at the ceiling. Ellie immediately abandoned the needling thought about how cute Dina looked to soothe the obvious awkward tension.

“Oh, sorry I thought you were Joel.” Ellie, pulled a pale green shirt she hoped was clean over her head, tucking the front down in before zipping her jeans up.

“Um, I’m so sorry, Ellie.” Dina gripped at her own arm, toeing the door shut next to her. “I heard from Troy you and Joel were back.”

“Yeah, we’re back.” Ellie began. “Obviously or you wouldn’t be talking to me right now.” Of course the first things she says after being gone so long is something stupid.

Dina relaxed when Ellie finished dressing, rushing over to her to giveher a hug. “I’m so glad you’re back.” Ellie still struggled to show affection with her friends, it came so easily for Dina. Hugs, touches, even kissing with some of her closer friends, given freely without prompt... it was all so foreign to Ellie. Awkwardly she patted at Dina’s shoulder. Dina took two large steps back, giving her a once over and scrutinizing her. Ellie felt heat rise on her skin, and it had nothing to do with the temperature. Dina glared and then laughed, Ellie felt so out of her element.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Your shirt is inside out.”

A quick glance confirmed that yes, it was in fact inside out. “Shit, good save.” She yanked the shirt off over her head and put it on correctly, pulling her head through the neck of the shirt, she noticed Dina was giving her a weird look.

“Dude you okay?” Dina blinked slowly at her.

“I think you got taller.”

“That’s not possible, I was gone two weeks.” Suddenly Dina was up in her personal space again, placing her hand flat against the top of her own head and moving it towards Ellie. Her hand hit the top of Ellie’s forehead.

“See, change.” Dina scowled.

“So that just means you’re gonna be the shortest.” Dina scowled, slugging Ellie in the arm.

“Ow, what did I do!?”

“You totally got taller leaving me behind. I’m the shortest now.”

“Conner is shorter than you.”

“Conner is ten.” Dina pulled her hand back, slightly blowing on her thumb until her middle finger stood up.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Ellie asked, moving her guitar over to it’s stand and plopping down on the couch, neck in the cradle of her hands behind her head, feet propped up in the table over a small stack of awful old comics she found. There were plenty of better things Dina could be doing with her night. “Shouldn’t you be hanging with Jesse?”

“Why would I want to hang out with him when I haven’t seen you in forever?” Dina raised her brows turning her lips down with a casual shrug of her shoulders. “Besides. Jesse’s my friend, but right now is boring me going on about patrol training. You’re back, you’re interesting me, entertain me.”

“I dunno, I was just gonna stay in and read comics or something.”

“That’s lame, let’s do something.” Dina put her hand to the side of her mouth with a conspiratorial whisper. “That would go well.” She leaned in closer, pulling something from the chest pocket on her brown collared shirt. “With these.” She held out two neatly rolled, pungent, joints.

“Holy shit, is that weed?” Ellie had never gotten the chance to smoke before. Maria was strict about weed being grown in Jackson. Ellie understood the worry of having to deal with high people, some of the older kids were shit to deal with at parties after a joint, but, people drank and she allowed that. Ellie made a grab at a joint, Dina pulled back waving it just out of reach.

“You get one when you tell me what we’re gonna do with these.”

“Movie night?”

“We do that without smoking.”

“Fine, video games?” Ellie couldn’t figure out what the fuck Dina was on about, but the intensity with which she stared at her was making her sweat.

“Come on, El. Let’s do something we’ve never done sober.” Ellie felt herself gulp and hoped it wasn’t as loud as it felt in her ears. She wracked her brain and tore her gaze away from Dina to give herself a moment to think. On her desk was a book about space giving her an idea. She took her feet off the table and reached over to grab her sneakers and put them on.

“I got an idea,” Ellie said tugging the laces of her shoes. “Do you trust me?”

“What’s the idea?”

“You’ll see.” Dina made a show of pondering over the situation before smiling.

“Fine, I’ll trust you. But if you betray my trust,” She leaned in close to Ellie and ran the length of the joint under her nose. “I’m smoking both of these.”

“Fine by me.” Taking a few seconds, she scribbled a note for Joel to find if for some reason he came looking for her, saying she went for a walk to clear her head. The last thing she needed was for him to tear through all of Jackson trying to find her. Ellie grabbed her gun, stuffing it into the waist band of her jeans.

“We’re not killing someone are we?” Dina joked.

“Maybe.”

“No, I just want to be safe.” Ellie grabbed her light red zip up hoodie, noting how it was a little too short for her arms in the sleeves, just in case it cooled off. She turned off the main lights and kept the string lights on, like she would most nights she was relaxing, and pocketed her knife. She held her hand out to Dina as she quietly opened the door.

“Joel’s in his work room, so stay low and to me.” Ellie crouched low and moved across the lawn, over to where they were out of sight, Dina always keeping a hairs-breath behind her. The gate was latched and she lifted it gently, ushering Dina under her arm and following her out, closing it as quietly as she could. Ellie trotted down Rancher Street a ways, keeping the pace light. It was still early for a Sunday, a few people sat out on their porches, sipping drinks or playing games. Overhead the stars shown brightly, the light pollution of Jackson was nowhere near as bad as Boston, but it was just enough that she had sought out the darkest spot near Joel’s house when they first moved in after he caught her stargazing on the roof.

When Rancher street ended it was along the western most wall. No gates meant there was a lapse in watch. Ellie jogged until she came upon a section of overgrowth with a white scrape above it. Ellie had smashed a large granite rock against it to mark off her entrance. Underneath the overgrowth was a thin chunk of wall that hadn’t been repaired, the other side was crated from decay. Ellie had to dig down a little to get enough wiggle room, but the result was a barely noticeable exit. Going prone, Ellie motioned for Dina to follow suit and when she did, Ellie put a finger to her own lips. Dina nodded and Ellie crawled forward until she hit a sheet of metal, swinging it aside. Ellie hauled Dina out behind her and ran towards the patch of darkness between the watch tower lights. Climbing out of the small hole, moving low and hugging the dark shadow of the wall, Ellie made sure they stayed out of the line of sight, only standing to her full height when she reached the cover of the woods.

“Look at you rebelling. When I asked, I figured you’d just take me to the park or something. I’m impressed.”

“We need to get away from the lights.”

“Oh so you’re murdering me and taking the joints, I’ll have you know I won’t be killed so easily.” Dina launched herself at Ellie and Ellie suppressed the part of her that could easily take out her friend. Instead she braced herself for the inevitable.

“Onward steed, to adventure!” Dina cried, jumping on Ellie’s back, gripping at her shoulders. and wrapping her legs around her torso.

“Don’t squash those joints.” Ellie grumbled, shifting Dina by her thighs, so she could hold her up better. The warmth of Dina pressed up against her felt distracting in the cool night air. Without much effort Ellie made her way towards the small dirt road path that would take them to their destination. It was still in Jackson’s safe zone, the terrain was harder for infected to travel through to begin with, the additional fencing put up along the perimeter eliminated most other threats. “I’ll be pissed if I carried you for nothing.”

“Please,” Ellie could feel the roll of Dina’s eyes. “You love this. This alone was worth the trip.”

Ellie pretended to drop her, enjoying the way Dine clung to her, before smacking her arm.

“You ass, looks like I’m getting two joints.”

“You’ll be taking that back when you see the view.” Ellie said just as she broke through the tree line, overhead the misty band of the Milky Way trailed across the sky. The mountains in the distance seemed to glow as a river of stars flowed out behind them. Ellie felt Dina’s gasp of awe against the shell of her ear more than she heard it. She dropped a leg down to stand and Ellie shivered at the loss of contact.

“Ellie, this is beautiful.” Ellie glanced over to Dina, and watched as her face opened in awe, the dark of her irises dotted with the billions of stars in the sky just as numerous as the freckles over her face. Dina twisted every which way before pulling Ellie along by her wrist to an outcrop of flat rocks. She sat down, leaning back on her hand. Ellie sat down next to her, ankles crossed, forearms on her knees.

“Did I do alright?” Ellie could feel her hands starting to sweat, not wanting to ruin her joint some how, she wiped them on her jean legs. Dina faced her, joint hanging loosely between her lips and proffered the second joint to Ellie. Ellie copied Dina and put the end that wasn’t twisted in her mouth.

“Let’s find out.” Producing a zippo lighter from nowhere, Dina pulled Ellie closer until the were separated by the two joints between them, and deftly lit both of their joints. Dina took a hit and exhaled slowly, looking effortlessly cool against the backdrop of the back lit Grand Tetons, her smoke traveling up to join the pale mist of the milky way. Ellie tried to copy her, the acrid smoke filling her lungs but the burn of the weed was too much and she held the joint out as she hacked until her lungs and throat hurt. Dina rubbing a sympathetic hand over her back.

“Oh, poor baby. You never smoked weed before.” Ellie managed a nod her from where she rested her head between her knees. “I should have brought a canteen.”

“I thought it was gonna be like cigarettes.” Her voice came out choked and hoarse. Dina laughed.

“Oh no, no. You gotta go slow. Little bits at a time.”

“Where’d you get this weed any way?”

“That.” Dina took a drag off her joint ember glowing orange and ash falling off the tip of the joint. “Is my secret to keep.” She exhaled the sweet smoke ghosting across Ellie’s face.

Ellie tried again and barely coughed. The smoke curled in her lungs, squeezing out any anxiety and tension she felt about Joel and what happened on the camping trip. Replacing the space with anxiety about how fucking sweaty her palms were. She put her joint out against the rock, tucking the rest behind her ear. Ellie took her sweatshirt off folding it into a makeshift pillow big enough for both of them to shove their heads together on. Laying back Ellie pointed out the brightest star.

“See that star there, that’s Deneb.” Dina snorted, into her shoulder at the word.

“Excuse me, that is not a real name.” She started giggling uncontrollably. “Da-neb..pffft.”

“Uh, yeah it is a real name.” Ellie furrowed her brow. Licking at her lips made them feel drier than before she licked them. Her mouth had apparently stopped producing spit. She pushed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, wondering if that would like, squeeze out spit. Dina rolled to face Ellie, she managed to pull off being absolutely baked and serious at the same time.

“I think you’re making that up.” Dina’s voice was stern with just enough of a hint of a tease. Ellie squinted at Dina’s face, her eyes felt itchy, was that normal? Her hands suddenly seemed to produced enough sweat they rivaled a waterfall in spring. Dina reached out for Ellie’s hand and Ellie nearly punched herself in the face to avoid the embarrassment of having hands that produced twenty times the normal amount of sweat. Dina simply pulled her arm into a hug instead, her eyes red and dropping.

“I’m not making anything up.” Ellie faced the sky again, she held her pinkie and thumb out crating a line from Deneb down to Polaris. “That cluster of stars that looks like a ladle, that’s Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper.

“I know that one, and the Big Dipper. Never got into the stars that much.” Dina’s breath tickled the hairs on her neck and Ellie suppressed a shiver, glancing enough to see Dina wasn’t even looking up.

“I’ll show you some. So that “W” right there looks like a chair, that’s Cassiopeia, she was this vain queen telling everyone she was prettier than all the other gods, so like, Poseidon the sea god had her tied to that chair so half the time she’d be upside down in the sky.”

“I have no fucking clue why you keep making shit up Ellie, but please don’t stop talking.” Dina muttered into her skin, her smile felt like a brand on Ellie’s shoulder through the cotton of her shirt.“It’s nice.” Ellie went to object the validity of the stories, but gave up when she realized Dina was too high to reason with.

“That one there, is Cygnus, it’s a swan. That long weird one is Draco, the Dragon of the north.” Dina smacked out at her bicep. “Watch it with the punches. Shit, dude. You’re violent.”

“And you love it. Ellie, these just sound like something from those cards you’re all about.”

“They are not,” Ellie huffed indignantly, pointing to the most known constellation. “That one there is called Orion, he’s like a hunter and if you were paying attention, I’d show you the three stars that make up his belt.” Dina halfheartedly moves her head up towards the sky following Ellie’s hand. Face full of concentration.

“Fake. That’s a snake.” Dina pulled her head away from Ellie’s shoulder laughing and placing her hand on her face. “Haaa, that rhymed.”

Ellie rolled her eyes, watching Dina, as she took her hand off her face, her glassy eyes reflected the night sky above them like still water on a lake. Maybe it was the high she felt, maybe it was something else but Ellie’s heartbeat sounded as loud as Shimmer’s hooves on the ground as she pushed her into a gallop. Ellie’s body felt too heavy to move and she found she didn’t mind at all if she could spend the rest of her life here like this with Dina, she’d be happy. Dina was the only thing Ellie could focus on, the world fuzzed out around her vision until she was lost in the pupil of Dina’s eyes. Her warm brown irises like a nebula engulfed by a black hole.

It was there in the dark she mapped out the night sky in the freckles on Dina’s face, in the galaxy she found staring back at her. Ellie believed for a moment she had been transported back to the museum, Houston in her ears as she imagined the vastness of space outside the quiet of her capsule. It was intimate in a way she never experienced before, secretly glad it was something she got to share with Dina. Hours or seconds later, Dina hovered next to her on an elbow, shaking Ellie back into reality. Ellie saw her lips moving, unable to make anything out, she focused and refocused on them until she could hear Dina clearly again. A strange side effect of the weed.

“What’d you say?”

“Hey, space cadet, you gonna stop staring at me and walk me home?”Dina’s eyes crinkled, she bit her lip. Tapping her forefinger against Ellie’s forehead, an unfamiliar fondness lacing her tone, blanketing Ellie in a warm embrace. Reeling her in from her private space walk. With herculean effort Ellie managed to make herself nod. Tension in her neck making her shoulder ache.

Ellie groaned as she sat up, her body protested the movement.

“Fuck I think I got too high.” Ellie, rasped. Her throat feeling unpleasantly disused. Placing her hand on her knee she pushed herself upright. Reaching down to haul Dina up.

“Oh you definitely did.” Dina, at some point, had put on Ellie’s sweatshirt. Ellie wanted to let her keep it, it fit her better anyway. Was that awkward? Who fucking knew. Probably Dina and she couldn’t ask that without making this weirder than it was already.

“Alright.” Ellie made a show of cracking her knuckles, and her neck be fore she offered her arm up to Dina who delightedly linked their arms together. “Lets get you home.” They made their way back towards the lights of Jackson, the soft chirps of crickets and the occasional scrape of a rock underfoot, the only soundtrack to the rest of the evening. Before they made it back Dina stopped, Ellie almost dragging them both when she failed to stop herself. Dina let go of her arm, took off the sweatshirt, handing it back to her with a bright smile.

“Thanks for tonight, Ellie.” Dina tucked her chin to her chest scuffing the toe of her boot against the asphalt. “I can’t believe I waited this long to see the best view in all of Jackson.”

Ellie chewed on her bottom lip, a smile growing until it threatened to over take her face.

“Yeah, same.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed a little pre TLOU2 Ellie x Dina everything is fun and nothing hurts time. I had to take a break from my main fic this week due to some personal stuff. I struggled to get back into writing it, so this explosion of words was born from a writing exercise I gave myself. I def needed some happy stoner times instead of the emotional serious times I planned.
> 
> Y'all are wonderful!


End file.
